Show Review: Cults at El Rey Theatre

Show Review: Cults at El Rey Theatre

I’ve been fortunate enough to see Cults perform three times already in their short career. Last night at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles was one for the books.

Guitarist Brian Oblivion and singer Madeline Follin are the duo that make up Cults. The New York-based duo made a stop in LA last night in support of their sophomore album, Static. Static is the highly-anticipated follow up to their self-titled debut, Cults.

Cults have 60s-esque pop sound that is found all throughout their new album. At El Rey Theatre, they performed a perfect mix of that sound interchanging between their new and old album.

What was obviously different in this performance than any of their previous performances is that Madeline is no longer the focal point. The band played a guitar- and bass-heavy set. When you’d usually hear Follin’s voice throughout “You Know What I Mean,” instead you heard drums and bass, and it was amazing. Follin still outshined the rest of the crew in front of a packed house.

The band played every single track from Static in front of a projector that, literally, projected static images mixed with lights throughout their performance. Though their old album had plenty of people dancing and singing, Static just sounded better with a much complete sound that I hadn’t seen from the band.

The most perfect track undoubtedly had to be “Were Before.” It’s not their best-known song, but it had what I think the band was aiming for: a balance of Follin’s vocals and hard-hitting bass that gives the crowd a little something to move to. Personally, I found “High Road” to be my favorite song of the night next “Oh My God.”